And I Quote…

We all have our pet peeves when it comes to writing, and I think that some of you will agree that the prevalent habit of misusing – or overusing – quotations marks is of those things. To be honest, this does not bother me as much as interchanging your and you’re. However, the discovery of a blog focusing on the unnecessary use of quotation marks has led me to write about the issue.1

Before I bombard you with some rules on the use of quotation marks, let me add a little bit of fun to your Monday by sharing how the real world makes use of these punctuation marks.

I am not sure if the guys who made the sign are being sarcastic, or they just don’t know what they’re doing. In any case, it’s probably not a good idea to buy fireworks from them!3

When did this propensity for overusing quotation marks start? I have no idea, but it definitely is not a recent trend. Take a look at this photo published 50 years ago by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.4

Maz stands for Bill Mazeroski, a popular baseball player during that time. His home run during the final game of the ’60s Series turned him into a legend, leading some overly enthusiastic fans to push for him as president.

Now that we’ve seen a few examples of how quotation marks can be used incorrectly, let’s take a look at two major rules for the use of quotation marks.

Rule #1: Direct quotations

When you are incorporating another person’s words into your writing, you have to use quotations marks.

He said, “You have to follow the rules.”

The judge said that he was not willing to “bend the rules” for that particular case.

In the first example, the first letter of the quoted statement is capitalized because it is a complete sentence. In the second example, the quoted material is a fragment, so no capitalization is required.

Rule #2: To indicate irony, double meaning, or a particular use of the word/phrase

I think this is the most common source of incorrect usage of quotation marks. Some correct examples of this particular usage are seen below.

His excuse was that he was too “busy” to attend the meeting.

I “love” waking up at 6 in the morning to go jogging.

In both examples, the quotation marks are used to indicate that the words inside mean something else. In the first sentence, it is implied that the person’s excuse – being busy – is a load of cr*p. In the second sentence, it is implied that the prospect of waking up early in the morning is not really pleasant for the person uttering the statement.

About Noemi Tasarra-Twigg

Editor of Splashpress Media, Noemi used to be an English teacher before going freelance full-time. She has a penchant for words and likes to play around with them - the result of a lifetime of burying her nose in books. Having been bitten by the travel bug, she aims to discover more languages & places in the near future as she continues to do what she loves most - writing.

[…] Here are the lamps on their own. First up, quotation marks. Here are a couple of tips on using quotation marks. One, use quotation marks when writing statements (verbatim) that were originally said by someone else. Two, use quotation marks when writing titles (books, stories, etc.). For more tips on how to use quotation marks, check out this post on Freelance Writing Gigs. […]